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January 10, 2010 by money funk
Filed under The Daily Grind
**Warning: Personal info may be TMI (too much information)**
The other night, Brad Pitt and me had thee best night of raunchy passion. Kicked back to eat Indian food at a small restaurant in Thailand, went back to my room at the hotel and…the rest is my history. 
Okay, so it was only a really damn good dream, but if my intentions are to make my dreams come true than this fantastic night of playful fun is a great indication that when dreams come true the end is a surreal feeling.
Flexo from Cosumerism Commentary wrote a great piece called Start the Decade Off Right: Do Something You Love. I really enjoyed the piece and I think you will, too. It sums up that life is too short and it’s time to do something you are passionate about.
How to embark?
- continue to seek out opportunities to discover new and old passions
- eliminate anything that doesn’t stem from passion
- and… try everything if you don’t know what your passions are
- Write a book
- Take martial arts
- Learn woodworking
- Learn to snowboard
- Build a sustainable business
- Travel the world, backpacking
- Jump out of a plane
- Zipline in Costa Rica
- Each lunch with Brad Pitt in Thailand
- Sell 2 unused gift cards
- Inventory and update my book listings
- List clothing on Ebay and donate the rest
- The first 4 weeks I did great staying on schedule.
- The 5th – 6th weeks were still paid on schedule, but I ended up borrowing from the EF for various expenses and buying school clothes (with great discount) on store card.
- Now the 7th week I didn’t submit the payment because of the holiday weekend and our grocery bill was heafty because we stocked up (I have to admit the break was nice)
- Re-evaluate the situation. Ask yourself again, “What do I need to do to reach this goal?” Make sure that your goals are challenging but achievable.
- Now, create an Unstoppable Drive. Find what motivates you to reach your goal. Is it reading a self help book, talking with friends, taking a run… get out and find that motivation!
- Organize your goal. Mine is to pay $250 per week to meet the desired result in 8 – 12 weeks. Write down the steps it will take to meet your goal.
- Have faith, believe in yourself, and stay flexible. As much as we would like to go from point A to B, it doesn’t always work that way. A friend of mine published a great quote on her site, “OBSTACLES ARE PUT IN OUR WAY TO SEE iF WHAT WE WANT IS REALLY WORTH FiGHTiNG FOR.” Believe that you will reach that goal, see yourself reach that goal, and realize that Point A to B may have some bumps in the road.
- 2 cards @ $2000 need to be PIF’d in 8 weeks. That would be $250 a week. That is a more achievable goal.
- The 3rd card is being PIF’d before the end of the year so that I keep the promotion of not paying finance charges on our purchase. This actually needs to be PIF’d by January 9, 2010. Which means it gives me a bit more time to pay. Additional 4 weeks time @ $1000 = $250 per week.
The last one really rang a bell with me as I have somehow lost focus with what it is I love to do. Try everything – a simple and profound solution. Make a list of those things you’ve always wanted to do or accomplish no matter how silly it may sounds. Let your ideas fall out of boundries.
Some of my ideas:
Now that you have your list. Think of ways you can break it down to smaller tasks to accomplish your big goal. I want to travel the world. Since, I can’t travel it all at one time I am choosing to plan one section of my trip this year. How much is it going to cost? Where will I stay? How do I plan to get around? Then I plan on taking that trip in the near future and marking that section off the list and starting on another.
We can think of 2010 as the decade that passed us by or the decade we are going to take hold of (past vs. present view). Do we wallow at what we didn’t accomplish or look with anticipation at what the future holds? I plan on looking forward to future with anticipation and kicking some Christine butt!
This Week’s Link Love:
Financial Samurai’s The Best Post on Craigslist, And It’s All About Love and Money
Consumerism Commentary’s Start the Decade Off Right: Do Something You Love
The Centsible Lifes’s New Year’s Financial Resolutions
DeliverawayDebt’s How-to Set Up a Car Maintenance Plan and Budget
This Week’s Top 5 Referrer’s:
(people driving traffic to my site – Thank you!)
I’m an Organizing Junkie
An Ostrich Named Sam
Climbing Out
Saving 4 Later
Debt Maven
What are the dreams you will accomplish?
Cleaning out the Garage
November 13, 2009 by money funk
Filed under The Daily Grind
Nostalgia. There are certain things you just gotta keep (above).
My husband and I spent time cleaning out the garage today. Did I tell you it looks superb? I’ve never seen it so clean! We tore through boxes, threw away junk, shredded old documents, took pictures of the items going to be sold online, made piles of stuff for our planned garage sale, clean out cupboards, got the stuff piled on the floor, killed a black widow, swept the floor, dropped off items to the thrift store, recycled… we just CLEANED! CLEANED! CLEANED! Love it.
We made $37.13 in the last two days!
We sold our artificial Christmas tree for $20 and made $17.13 in recycling our cans and bottles. SCORE! For some reason I just want to walk into the bank and hand them the cash to pay down the credit card bill. Does it sound silly? The money is in my wallet. I think I may just do that for personal satisfaction.
Part of me found it a bit difficult to rid of some items, but I knew that someone could get better use out of it. Better to have someone using the item then to be packed away in the garage. And I was saying to my husband, “I love these! I am going to keep them”. But then I saw him digging out his past treasures and was kindly reminded this was a joint effort. We are selling our things to get out of debt. I took the box back out, set it up for an image, and am happy to sell them away (how do you price a set of crystal glasses? Do you know how to tell real crystal glasses? You take a wet finger, run it around the rim of the glass, and it should produce a harmonious noise).
And my friends, you are right. It does get easier to let go of those past items as you push more out. I have no regrets and am happy to release those items. Of course, there are somethings we will keep; the china set with no place to be shown, a set of dish wear, those old records (above). I am excited to be finding items to sell and am happy to know it will help us to get out of debt. Everywhere I look in my house I ask myself, “can I sell this?”. LOL. I told my husband we are hitting up the kitchen and living room next. I am okay with having less material possessions.
I never realized how much stuff a person can have! I am surprised at the amount of Stuff! What do we need 15 cans of paint? or 3 pairs of bed frames? 3 yards of plastic? Tons of young children’s books? A hundred ’stuffies’ (my daughter’s name for stuffed animals) sitting above the closet? Tons of clothes in my closet I never wear? ETC…ETC…ETC…
I can’t wait to see how our progression unfolds with this Sell Everything Theory!
Anyone up for some Hendrix?
I’m Selling Everything I Own
November 4, 2009 by money funk
Filed under Finances
“Let’s sell everything we own!”, I exclaimed to my husband. Apparently, he didn’t have the same thoughts as me. “That would be going backwards”, he said.
I looked perplexed. “Backwards?” I asked, “but we owe $75,000 of debt. We can buy that stuff back later in cash.”
“I’ll think about it” he said in his manly voice.
Okay then, I am selling all I own! 
(Yes, I realize this is a joint effort, but sometime a woman needs to get the ball rolling)
This need to venture into a mass selling spree started after reading a guest post by Jenny Newcomer, on Man vs. Debt – PIF $15,000 in 9 months. I soon eyed the house for what I could possibly have to sell. And then it happened…
Every item in my house is now seen with a shiny price tag – the tent in the garage, the motorcycle helmets hanging on the wall, the books in my bookshelf, the coffee press in the cupboard. I realized, with new sight, that I have much to sell in my possession. The problem in the past, was the emotional attachment I harbored with these materialistic items. No more!
I will start small, but be persistant with posting and selling items.
My goal right now: to pay off half of my Bank of America card balance – $900.
On my agenda for the week:
There are different avenues I am looking to sell my items.
With more than 88 million active users globally, eBay is the world’s largest online marketplace, where practically anyone can buy and sell practically anything. With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day.
Half.com offers buyers an online marketplace where they can buy both new and used textbooks, books, music, movies and video games at discounted prices. With one of the largest inventories on the web, Half.com offers everyone the ability to find the best bargains online, quickly and easily.
Selling on Amazon is a program that enables merchants to sell their products and inventory on Amazon.com. You can sign-up to sell items in the following categories: Books, Music, DVD, Video/VHS, Baby, Camera and Photo, Electronics, Grocery, Health and Personal Care, Home and Garden, Musical Instruments, Office Products, Personal Computers, Software, Sports & Outdoors, Toys & Games, Tools and Hardware, Video Games and Wireless Antennas and Boosters.
Local classifieds and forums – community moderated, and largely free. Jobs, housing, goods, services, romance, local activities, advice – just about anything really. Started as an email list of SF events, as a hobby by Craig Newmark in early 1995. It now generates more than 20 billion page views. On Craigslist.org you can sell just about anything. For good Craigslist selling tips, Click Here
Garage sales are work – a lot of hard work, but the returns more than justify the effort. Whether it’s advertised as Patio, Carport, Yard, Porch, or Garage-a-Rama, people will come and buy. Clean out your closets and ANYTHING that is useless to you or you don’t want – put it in the sale. Don’t throw anything away. People will buy just about anything. You’d be surprised. What is one person’s trash is another’s GOLDMINE!
Let the Selling Begin! What is your best selling avenue (Craigslist, Ebay, Half, Garage Sales, etc…)?
We Quit!!!
October 2, 2009 by money funk
Filed under The Daily Grind
So my husband and I just came back from this location (above). When we got home we threw the keys on the table, called work and QUIT!!!
Got your attention, huh?
We didn’t really quit our jobs, but we have every intention of working towards that goal. We came to the conclusion that we are bored sick of our jobs, tired of making money for a company when we could be harboring our skills for our own company, and want to spend more time as a family.
We are working together to make it happen. Brainstorming to come up with ideas to work for our own. We realize that:
- it doesn’t have to be a “new” idea
- it doesn’t have to be a complicated idea
- that we need to be living and loving the concept (so what do we do now in our lives that we love?)
- And that we can do it! No doubt.
We have hit that line that says to us,
“It is time to take your life into your own hands and make it yours! Claim it! Live it as it was meant to be!”
I’ll keep you updated on our ideas. And I realize I have embarked on this subject before. Let’s refresh. If you could live your dream job what would it be? And why are you not doing it?
It’s time to dream and make it real!
Want some good reading on entreprenuership? Take a look at this website, My Wife Quite Her Job.
Tipping the Scales
September 8, 2009 by money funk
Filed under The Daily Grind
7 Weeks ago I started a challenge to PIF 4 cards in 15 weeks time.
The scales are now tipping into the negative. By “stealing from Peter to pay Paul” the funds are just getting reallocated. I am paying off one card but gaining debt in another card. Not my goal’s intentions at all!
What to do? With approximately $3000 left to pay, it would take $375 a week to PIF in 8 weeks. That a stressful situation and its got me down. How am I going to handle this situation? Hmmm…
It was recommended that when there is an obstacle you are trying to hurdle and it’s not going your way. Take these steps:
Let’s see how this works for me…
Time to re-evaluate the goal. 3 cards…
I am actually feeling better now. It is still a big goal that is going to take a little extra time to meet. But, it is nice to realize I have options, they are acheivable, I will continue to apply determination, and I WILL SUCCEED.
“To dream anything that you want to dream. That’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.” – Bernard Edmonds quotes
Is there a goal that has you stuck? Let’s brainstorm and see if we can’t come up with some more options for acheiving that goal.
